Where Serpents Strike (Children of the Falls Vol. 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

him hunt. Why do I have to go?”
    His mother slammed the wardrobe shut with an
exasperated huff. “Must you fight me on everything? For once it
would be nice to…” Catching his eye, she softened. Lilyanna pushed
a lock of reddish-brown hair behind her ear and tried to compose
herself. She was getting old, the signs of her age appearing in the
way her eyes crinkled at the corners, and in the faint blemishes on
her thinning skin. No doubt being queen and having reared six
children had advanced her years much sooner than she’d wanted.
    In that moment, Brayden could see the
irritation on her tired face—irritation, he noted, that he had put
there.
    “Your father has been looking forward to
this. He just wants to spend some time with you. Please try to make
the most of it.”
    She handed him the clothes she’d selected
and left the room as gracefully as she had entered.
    Brayden dressed—gray slacks, a linen shirt,
a brown jacket traced with copper thread.
    As he assessed himself in the wardrobe’s
full-length mirror, guilt washed over him. He didn’t know why he
had to be so difficult, or why he so often resented his father.
    Before following his mother outside he
glanced back to the windowsill, where the owl had dropped a
solitary white feather.
    He skipped down the narrow stone steps of
the castle’s southeastern turret that brought him into the lower
vestibule where the air was dry and crisp. He could already smell
fish and sizzling meat wafting in from the kitchen.
    Before entering into the small dining room
that his family used for breakfast, he noticed a lone figure
sitting in the Great Hall just ahead of him. Judging from the mop
of scraggly black hair spilling onto slouched shoulders it was his
younger brother. Brayden hesitated a moment before going in.
    The beauty of the Great Hall was lost on
Brayden, being a sight he had long grown accustomed to. Over the
years he had heard visitors from all corners of Edhen comment on
the rare wooden architecture and vaulted ceiling, but he took
little notice of it anymore. The last time he could remember even
thinking about the castle’s majestic hall was when his sister, Lia,
dared him to climb to the topmost rafter, which he had declined to
do out of fear of falling. Lia had called him a coward, but Brayden
had always considered himself cautious.
    He did notice, however, that after his
grandfather’s funeral the day before, the Great Hall seemed to
carry the chill of unfriendliness. Lord William Falls, his
grandfather, had been one of the most beloved kings on Aberdour.
His death had rattled the realm for many feared it signaled the end
of the era.
    Brayden took a seat next to his brother,
Broderick. “You all right?”
    His brother nodded, sniffling.
    An uncomfortable silence fell between
them.
    Brayden wanted to say more, but what were
brothers supposed to say to each other in times like this? He
fidgeted with his hands and looked about the room, hating how
uncomfortable he felt. When the silence became more than he could
bear, Brayden stood up.
    “Listen, maybe mother would let us hike up
to grandpa’s cabin and visit his tomb,” he said. “We could go
fishing at his favorite spot.”
    Again, Broderick nodded.
    “You should come get some breakfast.”
    In the dining room, Brayden ate in a rush,
inhaling his fish and sausages in a few bites and chasing it all
down with a cup of honeyed wine. He shoved an apple into the pocket
of his brown jacket for later.
    “You young ones have no respect for
traditions,” said Old Betha, one of the castle’s cooks as she
removed the unused white plate that she’d set for Brayden. “Eating
out of the pots and pans like a pack of wolf pups.” The woman had
been old for as long as Brayden had known her, but, oddly enough,
she never seemed to get any older.
    “They take after their father,” Lilyanna
said.
    “Why do we always eat off white plates?”
asked Brayden’s little sister, Brynlee.
    He scrubbed the brown